By Bo Erickson
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -U.S. Senate Republicans said on Thursday they will seek substantial changes to President Donald Trump’s sweeping tax and spending bill after it narrowly won approval in the House of Representatives, in a sign that significant hurdles remain for the package.
Just hours after House Republicans passed it with only one vote to spare, senators from Trump’s party outlined a range of objections to the package, which encompasses many of his top domestic priorities. That could make it more difficult for Congress to settle on a final version for Trump to sign into law.
“I expect there will be considerable changes in the Senate,” said Republican Senator Ted Cruz of Texas.
Republicans broadly agree on the main planks of the legislation, which would extend Trump’s 2017 tax cuts, tighten eligibility for health and food benefits, review many green-energy incentives and fund Trump’s immigration crackdown.
But many of the same fractures that threatened the bill’s passage in the House are at play in the Senate. Some lawmakers raised concerns about cuts to the Medicaid health care program, noting that the coalition of voters who powered Trump’s November election victory and whose support they will need to hold control of Congress in the 2026 midterm elections rely on the bill.
Others repeated the concerns of House counterparts that the measure does not sufficiently cut spending. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimates it will add $3.8 trillion to the federal government’s $36.2 trillion in debt.
Republicans control the Senate by a 53-47 margin, and they have invoked special rules that will enable them to pass the package with a simple majority, rather than the usual 60-vote threshold required for most legislation. That will allow them to bypass Democrats, who blast the bill as a giveaway to the rich.
That gives them a little more room for disagreement than their counterparts in the House, where a narrow 220-212 margin requires near unanimity.
MEDICAID EYED
Senators Josh Hawley of Missouri and Susan Collins of Maine said they were worried the House version could cut Medicaid health benefits for low-income Americans too deeply.
Hawley also said he had spoken with Trump and discussed closing a tax loophole that allows wealthy private equity investors to lower their tax payments.
“They ought to close the carried interest loophole,” Hawley said. The move could raise more tax revenue.
Senator Thom Tillis of North Carolina, meanwhile, said he would push for deeper spending cuts to lower the deficit. “We’re definitely going to have to seek more savings,” he told reporters.
Collins and Tillis both will be defending seats seen as competitive in next year’s election.
Senator Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, a hard-right conservative and fiscal hawk, said he would not vote for the bill as written, saying it needed broader across-the-board spending cuts.
Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky likewise said it did not cut spending enough, and objected to the inclusion of a $4 trillion debt-ceiling increase that would head off a possible default sometime this summer. “I’ll consider voting if they take the debt ceiling off of it,” he said.
They will have to contend with others who aim to increase the bill’s total cost. Hawley called for expanding a $2,500-per-child tax credit, while Tillis cautioned against quick cancellation of green-energy tax incentives, which he said would disrupt companies that have grown to depend on them.
Senator Mike Rounds of South Dakota questioned the accounting assumptions that underpin the bill, saying they did not take economic growth into account.
While debating the tax cuts initially passed in 2017, during Trump’s first term, congressional Republicans also argued that they would pay for themselves by stimulating economic growth. The CBO estimates the changes increased the federal deficit by just under $1.9 trillion over a decade, even when including positive economic effects.
In the end, Senate Republicans will face the same reality that their House counterparts did. Their party’s undisputed leader, Trump, wants the bill passed and can be expected to continue to apply pressure until it is.
“It’s time for our friends in the United States Senate to get to work, and send this Bill to my desk AS SOON AS POSSIBLE!” Trump wrote on his Truth Social service early Thursday.
So far the Republican-controlled Congress has not rejected any of his legislative requests.
The Senate is not expected to take up the bill in earnest until early next month, after its week-long recess for the Memorial Day holiday. Any changes it makes to the bill will need to be negotiated with, and ultimately passed by, the House before Trump can sign the bill into law.
Top Senate Republican John Thune of South Dakota spoke carefully as he addressed the bill’s prospects in his chamber.
“They gave us a good product to work with,” Thune told reporters on Thursday. “But we want to have — and have — senators who want to write our own bill.”
(Writing by Andy Sullivan; Editing by Scott Malone and Alistair Bell)
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